Cats and Dogs
by high improbability
Summary: Well, as long as they were at a truce, she might as well have a little bit of Christmas fun with this jerk. Jack x Ann, Secret Santa for BlueCupcakes.


**Author's Note: **

Hey, guys! My first story in a _very long _time, and this is for the Village Square's Secret Santas. If this seems early for some of you because we had to post on Christmas Eve, there's at least a seven time difference between us, so...

**Dedication:**

Dedicated to BlueCupcakes, one, because I got her as my Secret Santa, and two, because her story is AWESOME. I mean, like, seriously.

She requested Jack/Ann, and I scrapped two ideas before finally coming up with this one. **To BlueCupcakes: **I'm sorry if you don't like this, I was in a bit of a rush, but if you do bother to drop a review, it will really make my day!

* * *

** ~Cats and Dogs~**

"What IS your problem?" a certain redhead screamed.

"Nothing! What's _your _problem?" her brunette farmer companion retorted.

"Augh!" Ann reached for a plate.

_CRASH!_

Doug covered his ears as yet another plate got thrown at someone and got broken. He groaned. "Ann!" he barked. "Jack!"

Ann froze in mid-throw and Jack froze in mid-duck. "Yes?" they both asked meekly.

"Don't 'yes?' me!" Doug cried. "So far you've thrown three jellies, three pies, two _glass_ saucers, seventeen paper plates, and three ceramic plates! Stop it!"

The two eighteen-year-olds froze then stood up straight. Jack gulped. "I'm sorry, Mr. Burnham," he said meekly. "I'll be willing to reimburse all your losses."

Doug chuckled. "Oh, no, that won't be necessary, young man," he said, beaming. "Not from you, anyway." He glanced at Ann from the corner of his eye. "Now run along," he said in an incredibly fake and cheesy way."

Jack looked confused, but exited the Inn anyway.

Doug watched him go, then pounced on his daughter. "Ann!" he hissed. "What _is _your problem?" he cried. "Since Jack got here you've been arguing like cats and dogs!"

"No, we haven't."

Doug glared at her. "Then what do you call _this_?" he yelled, pointing to the messy kitchen. Ann cringed.

"And that, my dear daughter, is going out of your allowance."

* * *

Jack was not happy.

And how could he be, when Ann nearly landed him in trouble? Gah. Good thing her father had taken his side, or he'd be scrubbing floors right now.

Come to think of it, why were they even arguing again? Maybe it was about some stupid crack he made about her hair, or some snide remark she had made about his shoes. Maybe they just plain hated each other.

Why did they hate each other? Come to think of _that_, Jack didn't know the answer to it either. Maybe they had argued when they first met, or something like that, and just plain hated each other to keep it that way. Or maybe it was simply unexplainable, like why cats and dogs hate each other.

Either way, that was the extent of their relationship.

And it was going to stay that way.

Or so he thought.

* * *

Ann groaned. Manna was pestering her again.

"So, Ann, your father tells me that you and your boyfriend had a food fight? How was it? I remember my first food fight, ah, yes, I was in sixth grade then, I accidentally tossed a cupcake at the girl sitting next to me, and that girl happened to be all prissy! And you can tell what happened from there, Ann darling. And do you know who that girl was?"

Ann groaned again. "Uh…Anna?"

"Why yes!" Manna chattered. "And you know…"

"Manna, please," Ann said tiredly, "One, Jack is not my boyfriend, in fact he is my sworn enemy. And two, would you _please _leave me alone?"

Manna was not exactly offended, but instead she said, "All right, darling. But the more you hate the more you love!" With that, she sailed off.

"And the more you love the more you hate," Ann muttered.

"You know, I agree with her," Karen said, entering the Inn. "I mean, what's _with _you and Jack? You two are always arguing!"

"It's not my fault."

"Aww." Karen moved closer to her. "Does Annie have a crush?"

"No."

"Fine." Karen pouted. "But you know, he really is a nice guy!" she blushed.

Ann rolled her eyes. "Suuuuure he is. And he's so nice; he just deducted 4000G from my financial assets."

"Whatever." Karen grinned. "But my opinion is still open for you to agree on! I'm willing to bet you two'll hook up!"

Ann felt her face flush. "KAREN!"

Her companion smiled sweetly as she left the Inn.

* * *

Jack sighed and looked at the weather report on TV. "Good grief, no!" he cried. "A storm on _Christmas Eve_?! That can't be!"

* * *

"Ann, Elli wants to see you!"

Ann lifted her face from the pillow and got up. "Elli, what is it?" she asked, shivering from the cold.

"Ann, I have a favor to ask of you," the nurse said. Ann grinned. "Ask away."

"All right." Elli breathed in. "Could you get me some White Grass for the Doctor's Christmas present?"

The redhead shrugged. "Why?"

"Well, he's my boss and all, and he deserves a good gift," Elli started. Ann could see it was more than that, but she let the nurse continue. "White Grasses are his favorite, but I don't have the time to get him any from Mother's Hill because it's winter and everyone's coming down with colds and pneumonia.

"I already tried asking Karen, but she can't, and Mary's spending Christmas with Gray, Saibara, Anna and Basil. Cliff and Kai aren't here, and I obviously can't ask Doc, and Rick would never let himself go, let alone Popuri or his mom, and Zack's terribly busy, and everyone else has their jobs to attend to or is down with really bad colds."

She breathed in. "So can you _please _go?"

Ann considered it. It wasn't like she had anything to do, and besides, it was Mother's Hill. Perfectly safe, right?

"All right, Elli," she said. "I'll do it."

"Oh, thank you!" Elli squealed.

But after this, she would regret not looking at the weather reports.

* * *

**Christmas Eve**

The snow had swirled around in the howling wind, and Jack knew the storm was upon them. But for some reason, he had dashed to the Winter mine to do some last-minute mining. He didn't know why, but he just thought he'd come back immediately after he was done. So he took a thermos bottle of hot chocolate, some food he cooked, a blanket for sitting on and a blanket for the cold, and a Christmas present for the Harvest Goddess that he'd got somewhere, and ran.

He was going to drop the present off first, but the wind was howling loudly and he decided to put it off. So he dashed to the mine first and began hammering away at the rocks like a madman.

Ann had left early that morning to get a head start, but she had only found one White Grass. She groaned and looked at the sky. She gasped. This was not looking good.

Jack's head snapped up.

He knew he had heard a scream, even though the wind was screaming awfully loud.

And he just knew that person sounded familiar.

Ann was being pushed left and right, as if the wind was pushing her like a volleyball. There was sand in her eyes so she practically couldn't open her eyes, and even if she could open them, she couldn't see a thing because of the fog and mist.

She screamed.

And she couldn't even hear the scream's echo.

And the cold. Ann was shivering, and her toes and fingers were blue from the cold. She screamed again, and began whimpering.

Why, oh why did she agree to this torturous activity? Her knees collapsed to he ground, and she felt the tears threatening to fall. But they wouldn't. She couldn't cry. Not now.

Just when she felt she was going to give up, she felt strong arms put a blanket around her and lead her across Kappa Lake to a small island that Ann had never seen before.

"Come on, Ann," she heard Jack's voice above the storm.

Jack!

She turned to face him, or at least she tried to. She was too tired.

Then everything went black.

When Ann woke up, she was sitting in front of a warm fire. Her head was on a folded-up blanket and her body was covered by another blanket. She tried to sit up, but she couldn't. She closed her eyes. Maybe this was just a dream; maybe she was having hallucinations in the freezing cold.

Suddenly she saw Jack's face, and then her head snapped up and she screamed. He laughed. "Come on, Ann, am I really _that _ugly?"

She shivered.

He wrapped the blanket around her. "That better?"

She nodded. "W-what's going on?"

"I found you in the storm," he explained. "You were freezing. So of course my heroic instincts got the better of me and I brought you here."

"Okay..." Ann couldn't even believe she was alive. "Where are we?" she asked.

"We're in the Lake Mine," Jack replied. "It's the mine in the middle of the Kappa Lake."

"All right." Ann brought the blanket closer to her. "What were you doing here?"

He shrugged. "Mining." He got up. "Look, Ann, Elli told me what you were going to do," he said, "Only I didn't think we'd end up like this. So how's it going?" he asked.

She smiled sheepishly and handed him the one White Grass she had found. He grinned. "You owe me one, Ann," he said, winking at her. Out of his rucksack came a thick bunde of White Grasses. "Here. Consider it not my Christmas gift to you."

She pouted playfully and accepted the gift. "I could have done it myself, you know."

"Riiiight."

Ann groaned. Here she was, stuck in the middle of a frozen lake with her sworn enemy. But as she looked at him, his face felt apologetic.

"Look, Ann..." he began.

"Jack –" she started.

"You first," the girl said.

"All right." He sighed. "Ann, I don't really know why I'm saying this, but I'm sorry. For all our little catfights and that. To tell you the truth, I don't even know why we hate each other."

She smiled. "To tell you the truth, me neither."

And then she did something no one knew she would do: She kissed him.

He felt his face flush. But he felt happy and warm inside, even if this felt...right.

"Thank you," she said softly. "For everything."

Jack smiled and stuck out a hand. "Truce?"

She shook it. "Truce," she replied. "Until the storm's over, anyway. Then I'll go back to hating you again." She looked out the entrance to the mine. "Shame it has to storm on Christmas, too," she said sadly.

"Oh, which reminds me," he then said, bringing out a small velvet box identical to the one he was giving to the Harvest Goddess. "Merry Christmas."

She took it, tears in her eyes. "Thanks."

Ann opened it with trembling hands. Then something furry popped out and hit her face. She screamed ("Aaah! It's ALIVE!"), then began hitting it until it lay still on the ground. She picked it up.

"JACK WILSON!!!" she yelled. "THIS IS A WIG! I DON'T BELIEVE YOU! I THOUGHT IT WAS AN ANIMAL!!!"

Jack was cracking up in laughter. "You should have seen your face!" he cried, wiping away a tear. "And you thought it was an animal!" He started rolling over on the floor.

"You idiot."

She grinned and smacked him playfully on the cheek. As long as they were at a truce, she might as well have a little bit of Christmas fun with this jerk.

**~FIN~**

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**Author's Note/Pointless Holiday Greeting:**

I feel like I failed. Sorry...

Happy Holidays, anyway! To all you guys at the Village Square! You guys rock! And to all my faves at FanFiction...and FanFiction itself, Merry Christmas!!!

~Amethyst-chan

=]


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